jamesrupert2014

Broke and overnighting at a mysterious abandoned temple, Ning Choi-san (Leslie Cheung), a faint-hearted and hapless debt-collector falls in love with Nip Siu-sina (Joey Wong), a beautiful woman who turns out to be a ghost in thrall to a malevolent tree-spirit and betrothed to Underworld demon - can the inoffensive nebbish Ning, aided by Yin Chik-ha (Wu Ma) magical warrior-priest succour the blithe spirit and reunite her with her mortal remains so she can finally rest in peace in her home village? (or something to that effect). Not much makes sense as the characters race from one vague special-effects laden scene to another but since the plot is just a scaffold on which to hang slapstick humour, physics-defying martial arts, gloopy monsters and a very pretty girl, little else is expected. There are some imaginative and well executed scenes (Nip Siu-sina's magical manipulation of scarves and dresses stands out) but much of the supernatural imagery is dark and/or obscured by smoke or lighting tricks. Watched an English-dubbed version on TUBI (a subtitled version was unavailable) and the characters' mismatched British-accented speech made the whole product seem even more juvenile and cartoonish (I suspect I'd have rated a sub'ed version higher). Apparently the film has a cult following but was definitely a 'watch once and forget' for me.

The film is a dramatisation of the famous trail that followed the riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. I didn't know much about the events (other than the names of the more culturally-famous of the accused), so learned a lot from the film (but, like all 'dramatisations', some compression and simplification is inevitable, as is (unfortunately) taking some liberties with the facts (such as the implausible and superfluous addition of a FBI 'honey trap' targeting Yippie leader Jerry Rubin)). The ensemble cast is excellent, but Aaron Sorkin's writing and direction is a bit heavy-handed (using quick jump-cuts to contrast what is being said in court to what 'really happened' isn't particularly sophisticated and the overblown coda, when Tom Hayden reads the names of the dead American service men while drenched in dramatic music, was brutally trite (and inaccurate). I'm glad I watched Netflix's version of the story but now need to hunt down 1987's 'Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8', which is based on the actual court transcripts.

A plucky band of disparate warriors pit their wits and the firepower of their seven spaceships against a brutal galactic tyrant (John Saxon) armed with a planet destroying death-ray. Roger Corman produced this gleeful low-budget 'Star Wars' knock-off, and as usual for the famously frugal film maker, the sum is greater than the parts, largely due to his capacity for spotting (and hiring) new talent. Future legendary auteur James Cameron was behind many of the impressive (for the resources on hand) and imaginative special effects (including Nell, the heroic, vaguely uterine-looking 'corsair' flown by young Shad (Richard Thomas), hesitant leader of the group of space-seven), future Oscar-winning composer James Horner scored the film, and future Oscar-nominee John Sayles wrote the witty, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, script. The characters are amusing, ranging from Sybil Danning's underdressed 'space Valkyrie' (who has the film's most memorable line) to George Peppard's laconic space-cowboy (who manages to revivify the tired cliché) to Robert Vaughn's world-weary professional space-killer (essentially the same part he played in 1960's Earth-bound 'The Magnificent Seven'). There are also lizard-oids, telepathic clones of a mono-entity, and aliens who communicate by emitting thermal energy (allies who are useful for roasting hotdogs on while waiting in the trenches for the war to start). The special effects may induce a sense of sense of déjà vu in genre fans: in typical Corman fashion, they were later recycled in a number of bargain-basement films (such as 1983's lack-luster 'Space Raiders'). All-in-all, goofy, fast-moving, and colourful fun that, if watched in the right frame of mind, is much better than its unimaginative IMDB score would suggest.